The Blue Line

Rattling on about the 2004 election

Thursday, October 14, 2004

There's something (relevant) about (mentioning) Mary

And on the subject of Mary Cheney. The Republicans are claiming that Kerry's mention that Mary is a lesbian was somehow a low blow in the debate. I disagree completely. Here's Andrew Sullivan, gay conservative, on the subject:

All Kerry did was invoke the veep's daughter to point out that obviously homosexuality isn't a choice, in any meaningful sense. The only way you can believe that citing Mary Cheney amounts to "victimization" is if you believe someone's sexual orientation is something shameful.

In many speeches on marriage rights, I cite Mary Cheney. Why? Because it exposes the rank hypocrisy of people like president Bush and Dick and Lynne Cheney who don't believe gays are anti-family demons but want to win the votes of people who do. I'm not outing any gay person. I'm outing the double standards of straight ones. They've had it every which way for decades, when gay people were invisible. Now they have to choose.